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Maquis
The Maquis (mah-KEE) were a rebellious organization of Federation-born colonists and discontented Starfleet officers who organized against the Cardassian occupation of their homes in the Demilitarized Zone after their colonies were ceded to the Cardassian Union by Federation Cardassian Treaties in the late 2360s and early 2370s. Starfleet Command considered members of the Maquis to be traitors, while Cardassia considered the Maquis to be terrorists. The Maquis considered themselves an independent state and were going to formally declare their separation from the Federation, but these plans never materialized, because they were eventually defeated by one of Cardassia's prime allies, the Dominion and its powerful army of Jem'Hadar. Origin The roots of the Maquis insurrection can be traced back to the 2350s during the Cardassian wars. The Federation and the Cardassians settled a large number of Class M planets in close proximity to each other, and the issue of ownership of these colonies – as well as their security – became the causes of war. Although the Federation relinquished claims to all planets occupied by Cardassian colonies, the Cardassians sought to annex several crucial worlds along the border, including Minos Korva and Setlik III. Despite the risks of settling on worlds close to the Cardassian border, many Federation citizens, especially Humans, chose to settle on the fertile worlds in the region. Colonies including Volan II, Volan III, Soltok IV, Umoth VII, and others became thriving outposts of Federation civilization, but also became targets for the Cardassian military. By the mid-2360s, the wars had settled into an effective stalemate, with neither side gaining advantage in terms of firepower or territory. Finally, in 2366, a peace treaty ended the long conflict between the Federation and Cardassia. This truce enforced an end to active hostilities but left unresolved many of the major questions of the conflict, such as the fate of both colonies and colonists along the Cardassian border and Demilitarized Zone. Seeds of Resistance In 2367, the USS Phoenix, a Starfleet ship captained by Benjamin Maxwell attacked and destroyed an allegedly unarmed Cardassian science station in the Cuellar system. Maxwell explained to Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who was sent at that time to put a stop to Maxwell's actions, that the Cardassians were in fact arming again and that the so-called science station was actually a military supply port. Even though he could not prove it, Maxwell knew of the strategic importance of a military transport station in an area of space where Cardassians essentially had a jumping off point into three Federation sectors. Maxwell expressed his frustration with Federation bureaucrats who, had he notified them, would have just sat around for six months, reading reports trying to figure out what to do, all while Cardassians were arming up against the Federation. He considered the peace treaty a ruse to give the Cardassians room to regroup. Neither Picard nor Starfleet Command believed him however, and dismissed his warnings as that of a man seeking revenge against those who had killed his family. Determined to preserve the peace no matter what the cost, Picard insisted that what the Cardassians did was irrelevant. After Maxwell was apprehended, it turned out that he was telling the truth all along: Cardassians were carrying weapons to the science station and cargo ships were running with high energy subspace fields that jammed sensors. Picard confronted Gul Macet who denied everything. However, understanding that peace and stability would ultimately be in the interest of everyone, Picard decided to make his knowledge about the true intentions of Cardassians with regard to the science station unknown. A decision whose implications further deepened the rift between the Federation and those who believed that the price the Federation was willing to pay for peace was too high. It took another three years for a final peace treaty to be negotiated, and although the questions of territory were finally settled, neither side was entirely happy with the solution. The Treaty of 2370 established a new Demilitarized Zone (also known as the DMZ), from which all large warships belonging to either side were excluded. Much more controversial, however, was the exchange of colonies which was to take place. The treaty stipulated that each side would transfer ownership of certain worlds. The inhabitants of those worlds would be resettled elsewhere beforehand. Despite the vehement protests of many colony leaders, the Federation Council signed the Treaty. Starfleet was given the task of evacuating the colonists from their homes and transporting them to other worlds. One of the first worlds slated to be evacuated was Dorvan V, a colony settled in 2350 by a group of Native Americans. The Native Americans claimed that they had a special, spiritual connection to their world, and refused to be evacuated. USS Enterprise-D captain Jean-Luc Picard attempted to negotiate an agreement with the settlers, but they steadfastly refused to leave. Violence nearly broke out when Picard attempted to evacuate the settlers by force. Ultimately, an agreement was reached whereby the Dorvan colonists were permitted to remain in their colony under Cardassian jurisdiction. The arrangement was approved by Gul Evek, the Cardassian official in charge of affairs in the Demilitarized Zone. (TNG: "Journey's End") Following the Dorvan agreement, colonists on many other worlds also refused to abandon their homes and demanded to be permitted to stay on their colonies. Both the Federation Council and the Cardassian Central Command acquiesced for the time being. Civil Unrest Despite success on the surface, the reality of the station proved rather different. Although Starfleet assigned an attaché, Lt. Commander Calvin Hudson, to the Demilitarized Zone to help the colonists function under the terms of the new Treaty, resentments began to fester as hardships mounted. People who had worked all their lives to build these colonies were suddenly asked to either leave or stay behind under the rule of an uncertain and unscrupulous military power. Although the Cardassian government had officially pledged to leave the Federation colonists alone, a wide campaign of oppression began at practically the same time. Food replicators were poisoned, mobs were organized, and general harassment of the Federation colonists made life difficult at best. It was clear, to Hudson and the colonists, that the Cardassians had no intention of allowing the colonists to stay: they were either going to force them out or kill them. During a visit to Deep Space 9, Hudson expressed his frustration with the Treaty between the Federation and Cardassia to Benjamin Sisko. He pointed out that the Treaty was essentially imbalanced in favor of Cardassia, as it had thrown the colonists, who had not really been given a choice, into the hands of the Cardassians who had all but good intentions with them. He considered what the Federation had done to the colonies abandonment and was angered about the many concessions that were made for the sake of peace; a peace that came at the expense and livelihood of the colonists who had worked hard to make a new life for themselves. He suspected the Cardassian High Command had armed their own colonists to the teeth with the intention to harass the Federation colonies until retreat and surrender. Resistance Builds A suspicion that proved to be true: by shipping the weapons through intermediaries such as the Lissepians, they managed to avoid the attention of Starfleet. The Cardassian colonists mounted the weapons – including Galor Class heavy disruptors – onto shuttlecraft-sized vessels and used them to attack Federation interests. The Federation colonists did not accept these attacks passively. While Starfleet conducted "official" investigations into the situation, the colonists decided to take matters into their own hands and banded together into underground paramilitary cells, acquiring weapons of their own through the black market. These weapons were mounted on Federation-designed shuttles and couriers and used to defend against the Cardassian colonists' attacks. The Demilitarized Zone was becoming very militarized. Hudson, who was one of the first Starfleet officers to turn away from Starfleet and lead the Maquis, justified his decision by stating that maybe the Federation could turn its back on the colonies, but that he and the colonists could not. For them, out on the frontier, without the power of the Federation to back them up, a Treaty was only a piece of paper that ultimately failed to solve the plight they were facing. He insisted that nobody wanted peace more than the Maquis, but that it could not be achieved with the Cardassians secretly supplying their colonies with weapons while the Federation felt obligated to stand by and watch without taking action out of fear that it might compromise a peace, which - as far as the Maquis were concerned - was based on an unjust and inequitable basis. In the eyes of the colonists and the Maquis, the Federation had abandoned them, expecting that they take care of themselves; which was exactly what they were doing by standing up to the Cardassians. Open Conflict The first open attack by the Maquis, as the Federation paramilitary groups came to be known, was against the Cardassian freighter Bok'Nor at outpost Deep Space 9. The Bok'Nor was suspected of running weapons to the Cardassian colonists in the DMZ. Maquis sympathizer William Samuels planted an implosive protomatter device on the Bok'Nor's hull, causing a catastrophic overload in the fusion reactor, destroying the ship. Barely a week later, Gul Dukat was abducted from Deep Space 9 by Maquis operatives, and taken to a class-M asteroid in the Badlands. DS9 commander Benjamin Sisko pursued, and discovered that the Maquis cell involved was led by Calvin Hudson, the Starfleet attaché and a personal friend. Sisko was eventually successful in rescuing Dukat from the Maquis. Based on intelligence obtained from Sakonna, a former Maquis member who had been influential in purchasing many of the group's ships and weapons, Sisko determined that the Maquis were planning to attack a suspected weapons depot on Bryma, a former Cardassian colony. In order to prevent the possible outbreak of a new full-scale war, Sisko intercepted the Maquis attack (which was led by his friend Hudson) and forced them to retreat. Meanwhile, after the shipments of weapons to the Cardassian colonies were exposed, the Central Command officially denied all involvement in the matter. Legate Parn placed the blame on Dukat (who was in the custody of the Maquis at the time) and a small cadre of "misguided" offiicials. Dukat later observed that he was simply used as a scapegoat to deflect the blame for the violation of the treaty away from the Central Command. Although full-scale war was avoided, the Demilitarized Zone was quickly becoming a hotbed of conflict. Now that both sides' civilian colonists possessed advanced weaponry, an underground war broke out without any direct involvement from either the Cardassian or the Federation fleets. Consolidating Strength Back in the Alpha Quadrant, the Maquis managed to not only survive, but to expand their influence and consolidate their position inside the Demilitarized Zone in the two years following the Orias incident. The Maquis' good fortune came in large part thanks to massive upheavals inside the Cardassian Union. Following the destruction of the Obsidian Order the previous year, the Cardassian dissident movement managed to overthrow the Central Command and place power in the civilian Detapa Council. The situation in the Demilitarized Zone changed drastically with the sudden onset of the Klingon-Cardassian War in early 2372. The Klingon Empire launched a major assault against the Cardassian Union, acting under the belief that the recent revolution had been engineered by the Dominion. The Klingon invasion led to the occupation of more than a dozen outlying colonies, the destruction of a large portion of the Cardassian fleet, and massive damage to the Union's industrial infrastructure. With the Cardassians' eye turned inward and their military reduced to a third-rate power, the Maquis had nearly free reign of the DMZ. Additionally, the Klingons formed a secret, informal alliance with the Maquis. Aside from providing material assistance, the Klingons also provided the Maquis with thirty class-4 cloaking devices to mount on their ships. Sudden Death Barely a month later, Gul Dukat made the startling announcement that the Cardassian Union had agreed to become a part of the Dominion. The Cardassian military was immediately augmented by a large fleet of Jem'Hadar warships that entered the Alpha Quadrant through the Bajoran wormhole. Dukat, as the new leader of Cardassia, announced a grand offensive against all of Cardassia's enemies, primarily the Klingons and the Maquis. Dukat vowed not only to drive the Klingons out of Cardassian territory, but also to eliminate every last Maquis colony inside Cardassian territory within the space of three days. With the Jem'Hadar as allies, the Cardassians made good on that threat. Ignoring the treaty's restrictions, they launched a massive invasion of the Demilitarized Zone, rapidly and efficiently wiping out every Maquis colony. The Maquis attempted to put up a valiant fight, but the small raiders and fighters they possessed were hardly a match for the fearsome Jem'Hadar attack ships. In the aftermath of the Cardassian and Dominion offensive, only small pockets of Maquis remained, isolated and completely impotent. Aside from those Maquis who had been captured by the Federation and imprisoned, the largest group of survivors were from Eddington's former cell on Athos IV – and even then, only a few dozen members managed to survive, usually ending up in Federation prisons. The only large group of Maquis remaining were aboard Voyager. They learned that the Maquis had been massacred when Seven of Nine learned how to use an ancient Hirogen communications network to contact the Alpha Quadrant in 2374. One of Chakotay's old friends, Sveta, wrote him a letter from prison explaining the situation. The news was met with mixed emotions. Engineer B'Elanna Torres discovered that she felt no overwhelming pain over the death of some of her closest friends, and began running dangerous holodeck programs without the safety protocols in order to inflict physical pain on herself in order to assuage her feelings of guilt. She eventually dealt with the feelings by helping the Voyager crew on a daring mission to rescue a multispatial probe aboard the newly-built Delta Flyer. Some former rebels in the Alpha Quadrant escaped capture, including Teero Anaydis. Teero refused to let the idea of the Maquis die, and discovery of Voyager safe in the Delta Quadrant gave him an opportunity to try and resurrect the rebellion through his mind control plan from six years prior. In 2377, Teero intercepted a message from Tuvok's son, Sek, and implanted a subliminal message which forced Tuvok to recall Teero's experiments. Tuvok began attacking the Maquis crewmembers and gave them subconcious instructions from Teero through a mind-meld. The Maquis eventually took control of Voyager and nearly stranded its Starfleet crew on a planet in the Delta Quadrant. However, Tuvok was able to regain mental control and use another mind-meld to remove Teero's influence from the Maquis crew. Category:Groups